Fortnite gets weapon vending machines, explosive game mode

Using a vending machine is easy if you have the materials. Photo: Epic Games

This week’s Fortnite update brings vending machines to battle royale, allowing you to trade unwanted building materials for weapons.

The vending machines are scattered around the map, and each offers three items of randomly-selected rarities. The items are cycled every so often and there is no limit to how many you can purchase in each match.

Epic Games has also added a limited-time High Explosives game mode.

Fortnite is generous with its loot, but you don’t always find all the weapons you need when you land. You might end up roaming around for a while with nothing but a shotgun and an SMG, neither of which will help you in a long-range gun fight.

Some weapons — like the new guided missile — are just incredible difficult to find. Now Epic is making it somewhat easier to get your hands on better guns with weapon vending machines.

Fortnite gets weapon vending machines

In your next game of battle royale, you’ll find vending machines have been placed in various locations around the map. You can use them to purchase weapons using the building materials you’ve collected by smashing down walls and trees.

Each machine offers three items — one for each material type (wood, metal, and stone) — with randomly-selected rarities. The machines cycle through each of the three items on a short timer, but you can switch items faster by hitting the machine with your pickaxe.

There is no limit to how many items you can purchase from vending machines in a single match, but you’ll need to collect plenty of materials for a big shopping spree — especially if you want to get your hands on the best weapons, which will cost you more.

Here’s how much you can expect to pay for weapons in each class:

Common: 100 materials

Uncommon: 200 materials

Rare: 300 materials

Epic: 400 materials

Legendary: 500 materials

Fortnite High Explosives game mode

The Sniper Shootout game mode is gone with this update, but an improved High Explosives game mode has been added. You can play it solo or in a squad, and every weapon you’ll find will be in the explosives category, including:

Grenade launcher

Rocket launcher

Guided missile

Remote explosives

Hand grenades

Impulse grenades

Boogie bombs

This is a great way to try out the guided missile if you haven’t been able to find one in regular battle royale.

Fortnite weapons have been adjusted

Epic has also made some weapon balance adjustments with this update. There’s a long list of alterations to each gun — too many to list here — but you can find all the details on the Fortnite blog if you’re interested in that kind of thing.

Finally, Epic has changed the way it delivers updates, which means we no longer have to install an update every week.

Patches will be pushed out every two weeks — or fortnitely, if you will — and the weekly content updates will happen automatically, without the need to install another update.